Joseph Fielding Smith wrote:
A man walking along a road happens to fall into a pit so deep and dark that he cannot climb to the surface and regain his freedom. How can he save himself from his own folly? Not by any exertions on his own part, for there is no means of escape in the pit. He calls for help and some kindly disposed soul, hearing the cries for relief, hastens to his assistance and by lowering a ladder, gives to him the means by which he may climb again to the surface of the earth.
This is precisely the condition that Adam placed himself and his posterity in, when he partook of the forbidden fruit. All being together in the pit, none could gain the surface and relieve the others. The pit was banishment from the presence of the Lord and temporal death, the dissolution of the body. And all being subject to death, none could provide the means of escape.
Therefore, in his infinite mercy, the father heard the cries of his children and sent his Only Begotten Son, who was not subject to death or to sin, to provide the means of escape. This he did through his infinite atonement and the everlasting gospel. . . The Savior said, “I lay down my life for the sheep. . . . I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:15, 17-18). ~Joseph Fielding Smith, The Gift of the Atonement (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002), 5
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